Jags' assistant coach sees very little loafing on defensive line

Bruce.Lipsky@jacksonville.com--02/12/2013--Todd Wash, new Jaguars defensive line coach, answers questions on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 in Jacksonville, Florida. Six of the new Jacksonville Jaguar coaches met the press at EverBank Field. (Florida Times-Union, Bruce Lipsky)

He tracks snaps played and missed tackles. He catalogs run stuffs and quarterback pressures. He documents double-teams and one-on-one matchup success.

But the statistic that had Jaguars defensive line coach Todd Wash excited Tuesday regarded his group’s effort in Sunday’s 13-6 win over Houston.

“We chart loafs and had only 11,” Wash said. “We’ve almost cut those in half and that’s a credit to those guys.”

Those guys were accurately criticized throughout the season’s first half. In the first eight games, they combined for five sacks and 12 tackles for loss.

But since the bye week, the Jaguars’ front four has flashed much more often, posting two sacks and nine tackles for loss.

“I think they’re overcoming my coaching,” Wash said with a laugh.

Wash, who left the same position in Seattle to follow long-time friend Gus Bradley to Jacksonville, changed the meeting room’s focus entering the Week 10 game at Tennessee.

“When we watched the [tape] cut-ups, we noticed that our fundamentals lacked in games 4-8 compared to the first three games – we saw it in our pass rush and we saw it a lot in our run-game technique,” Wash said. “It was a big emphasis to get back to the things we hammered out during training camp.”

Bradley and the staff tinkered with the practice squad to allow for 15 more minutes of position drills. Live tackling wasn’t a part of the workouts, but on and off the field, attention to the details and getting more comfortable with the scheme was emphasized.

In the last three games, the Jaguars have allowed only 184 yards on 62 rushes and they’ve climbed out of the league cellar in that department for the first time in two months.

The contributing factors: Sen’Derrick Marks (knee/ankle) needed the bye week and his playing time has been scaled back by 4-5 snaps a game. … Roy Miller (shoulder) has been given practice time off to keep him ready. … Andre Branch has seen the light, first by playing harder and now by adding another pass rush move to his repertoire. … And the Jaguars have gotten a spark from practice squad call-up Ryan Davis, who sealed the Texans game with an interception.

Wash was asked about those four players.

On Marks: “The previous six or seven games before the bye, we would get into the third quarter and he would be limping. But we’re doing a good job of limiting him in practice and keeping the pounding off him that way. I want to knock that [snap-count] number down by another five or so.”

On Miller: “Once he gets into the fourth quarter, he’s really worn down because of his shoulder and that is strictly the same as before [the bye]. We’ve limited his practice wear and tear but his technique has gotten better and better. He’s just a tough sucker. We owe a lot of the credit to him.”

On Branch: “Up until Week 3, he wasn’t playing as hard as he should and we definitely challenged him as a staff and he’s responded. His work ethic in practice is better and we’ve been very encouraging with him. There is a lot of room for him to grow and hopefully we’ve just scratched the surface.”

On Davis: “Like a lot of guys have said on our team and definitely for us as a coaching staff, [the interception] couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. It was the right situation and right timing for us to bring him up and we wanted to put more speed on the field.”